Introduction

This chapter considers what it means to consume sustainably in Jinja, Nanjing and Sheffield, in particular how residents’ views on resource consumption are interwoven with anxieties about intergenerational value change (Inglehart, 2008). Sustainable consumption research has often neglected the Global South (Dermody et al, 2015; Ariztia et al, 2016; Liu, Valentine et al, 2018), or else it has emphasized the interdependencies of Northern consumers and Southern producers (Shanahan and Carlsson-Kanyama, 2005). There is, however, growing recognition of the globalization of consumer lifestyles and aspirations, and concern over the ecological implications of ‘new consumer’ trends in developing and transition countries (Myers and Kent, 2003). Our case study cities have very different histories and cultures of consumption, and we do not suggest equivalence in the impact or necessity of reducing consumption in each place. Rather, we are interested in how urban residents perceive local cultures of consumption and connect this with ideas about sustainable resource use. In this respect, we find common ground across Jinja, Nanjing and Sheffield in narratives of scarcity, frugality and waste, and in the characterization of unsustainable consumption as a generational problem.

“People who once lived a poor life can spend money on what they like”

At different paces and drawing on different embedded histories in each city, urban residents identified ways in which local cultures of consumption had changed in living memory.